How to Create More Business Visibility in a Manufacturing Business?

Manufacturing companies must have a clear visibility of their operations and processes. Good visibility provides the ability to ensure timely procurement, right inventory, smooth production, efficient supply chain process and gain a competitive edge.

In this article, we will discuss what is visibility in manufacturing, its significance, areas that require maximum visibility, and how ERP system can help achieve improved visibility.

What is visibility in a manufacturing business?

Visibility means the ability to capture real-time data & gain access to accurate information of important aspects of manufacturing operations. Manufacturing companies involves need clear understanding of inventory, resources, and performance metrics to analyze the trends and gain insights for continuous improvement.

Which areas of a manufacturing company need maximum visibility?

All areas of a manufacturing business need good visibility; however, following areas require maximum attention:

Production Visibility:

Visibility into production processes enables monitoring production schedules, efficient resource utilization and tracking work orders properly. It also helps identify & eliminate bottlenecks. This improves productivity.

Inventory Visibility:

Visibility into inventory levels, stock movements, and order fulfilment helps minimize stock-outs, reduce excess inventory, and optimize working capital. It allows effective materials planning.

Visibility in Dispatch & Order fulfilment:

Visibility into pending orders, dispatch planning, and logistics can help in hassle-free dispatch, better coordination, and communication among the team.

Visibility in costing:

Raw material prices are fluctuating, so is their production cost. Having visibility in the landed raw material cost, operation cost, and finished goods cost helps monitor and control the expenses.

Quality Control Visibility:

The ability to investigate the quality of raw material received, finished goods quality, number of complaints and rejections empowers manufacturing companies to maintain good product quality standards and reduce risk of dissatisfaction.

Payable & Receivables Visibility:

Manufacturing companies have a high number of transactions. Visibility of amounts payable to vendors, transporters etc. and amounts receivable from customers is important to have a healthy cash flow and trustworthy relations in the market.

Financial Visibility:

Real-time financial data such as expenses, profitability, and correct provision gives the correct snapshot of the business. This enables making timely, informed decisions.

Visibility of Exceptions:

Visibility, helps implement management by exception. Exceptions reporting such as stock out of critical items, pending orders after the scheduled date, or receivables after the due date notify management when their attention is required.

Why is it important to have visibility in manufacturing processes?

Good visibility in a manufacturing business is beneficial in the following ways.

Improves decision-making:

Real-time data, trends insights, helps management make more informed decisions. This helps to ensure timely responses to issues likely to crop up

Increases operational efficiency:

Companies can identify problem areas / bottlenecks, with good visibility and streamline processes & resource allocation. Thus, you can reduce inefficiencies and improve productivity.

Efficient supply chain management:

Visibility helps manufacturers provide real-time data to suppliers, distributor, logistics teams etc. This ensures everyone is on same page, makes coordination easier and reduces friction.  This helps achieve a robust supply chain.

Enhance Customer service:

Accurate visibility helps manufacturers inform customers, the exact delivery dates, track their orders, and reduce customer complaints. Customer have a good experience leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty.

How to achieve good visibility in manufacturing company processes?

Manufacturing companies can take the following steps to achieve good visibility:

Real-time data capturing:

Implement real-time data capturing and monitoring tools. This will ensure accurate data on inventory levels, production performance, plant & machinery, supply chain activities etc

Centralize data:

Consolidate data across departments, locations & systems into a single database. This provides a real-time, unified view and access to accurate information. This eliminates efforts of reconciliation & discrepancies and ensures right information to all.

Data analytics:

Use reporting tools & analytics to analyze the collected data, understand patterns and derive actionable insights. This aids in the process of making better decisions for continuous improvement.

How ERP software helps manufacturing companies achieve good visibility?

Here’s how ERP solutions plays a vital role in providing great visibility in manufacturing.

Single Central Database:

ERP offers a centralized data repository, integrate various functions and departments within a manufacturing business. This allows for real-time access to accurate and up-to-date information.

Digitize, Streamline & Automate processes:

ERP helps digitize, streamline & automate manufacturing processes, like production planning, inventory management, and order tracking. Thus, it eliminates manual work, possible errors, provides real-time status updates, and enables increased visibility into operations.

Demand planning:

ERP integrates data from sales, marketing, production. ERP also provides historical data to identify demand patterns, customers insights, market trends information. Thus, facilitates better demand planning

Inventory Management:

ERP provides material requirement planning methods. It tracks inventory across locations in real-time, offers accurate details of items in stock, helps define reorder levels & reorder points. This visibility helps maintain optimum inventory, reduce inventory carrying costs & ensure healthy working capital.

Supply chain integration:

ERP systems help seamlessly exchange information about purchase orders, shipments, and delivery schedules with suppliers, logistics providers, customers, etc. This improves supply chain visibility significantly.

Quality management:

ERP offers quality modules to record inspections of quality of raw materials, goods, record variance etc. This ensures defects are detected early, and necessary corrections are done promptly. This visibility, ensures good product quality standards are retained.

Real-time reporting and analytics:

ERP offer standard & custom reporting, one glance dashboards& analytics. Companies can generate real-time reports, view important performance metrics, understand trends, insights for identifying concern areas, and work toward continuous process improvement.

Summary

ERP system helps manufacturers achieve enhanced visibility of operations. Visibility enables making informed decisions, optimizing processes, continuous improvement for growth  and a competitive edge for long-term success

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